The Bad Guys 1 – Episode One

Aaron Blabey's The Bad Guys Episode One is a very silly comic-style story for 7 year olds about a wolf who's sick of everyone screaming when he walks in.

What happens

Mr Wolf talks straight to you from the first page. Yes, he's got big pointy teeth. Yes, he sometimes dresses up as an old lady. But he's a nice guy, honestly, and so are his friends. They've just been misunderstood.

Then his friends turn up, and each one comes with a police file. Mr Snake's says he ate every mouse, canary and guinea pig in a pet shop. Mr Piranha has a nickname I won't repeat here (it's about bottoms). Mr Shark's file has a bite out of it.

Wolf's big idea is a club for good guys. The others aren't sold. Snake wants mice, Piranha wants meat and Shark wants seals. Wolf offers them cupcakes.

Their first good deed is a kitten stuck up a tree. How hard can that be? Very, it turns out, when one of your rescuers is a shark grinning up at it with a mouth full of teeth. Things go downhill fast. Snake swallows Piranha whole, and Wolf has to whirl him round his head to get Piranha back out.

Then comes the real job, breaking 200 dogs out of the City Dog Pound. The plan involves a frilly dress, a pair of plaits, a grappling hook and a very small window. Wolf is 85 percent sure he'll get it first time. What the dogs make of their rescuers, I'll leave you to find out.

On the page it reads like a comic with very big words. Nearly every page is one large picture with a speech bubble or two, or a strip of panels. The important words come in huge capitals (WRONG. SPLAT! FREEDOM!). A lot of the jokes are in the faces, especially Wolf's wild, staring eyes. A child reading alone can get through it in one sitting, laughing most of the way.

There's plenty of bottom humour, mostly from Piranha, who gets carsick and gassy and is very relaxed about it. Underneath it all there's something sweet. Wolf just wants to be liked, and he keeps trying to hug friends who'd really rather he didn't.

The story stops on a "To be continued", so be ready for requests.

What to read next

If your reader loves a gang of hopeless animals with big plans, try Stick Dog Crashes a Party. Five stray dogs share a pipe, and it opens with a squishy packet bursting all over Karen's nose while her friends decide she's bleeding to death.